Guard Duty
by Agent C21
Summary: Get ready for a long shift.
1. Living Quarters Outbound

CHAPTER ONE: LIVING QUARTERS OUTBOUND

Barney Calhoun hated his job. Not only was it tedious and boring, but required him to awaken at six in the morning every morning, get into a freezing cold metal box, and sit in that for an hour waiting to arrive at his post. Oh, and he had to actually _live _at the facility. Barney would've seriously considered resignation if not for his best friend Gordon Freeman, a scientist at the facility who didn't have to go through what Barney did, due to the fact he spent most of his day in the staffroom with the other Anomalous Materials scientists, waiting for something to do, and his girlfriend Lauren, also a scientist, but Barney didn't even know what she did. Barney, however, had to complete useless patrols every single morning, afternoon and night. He was paid more than some, however there was nothing to spend it on, as a night out would require a four-hour drive to the only civilized city near the facility, which would drain half his money on petrol. He would then proceed to coax drinks out of everyone he drove out with, ending up owing more than he could, losing the rest of his money on a motel room and waking up Saturday morning with a splitting headache in a dirty room covered in vomit. Every year he told himself it was the last year, but he always ended up staying. Lauren worked at Black Mesa as well, but down in Sector G so there was no chance that they'd bump into each other during work unless Barney was called down for an emergency. Barney, at this point in time, sat in a so-called 'freezing cold metal box' (a Black Mesa Research Facility Automated Transit System Inbound Tram, or a Black Mesa Tram) and waiting to arrive at the Sector C guard posts, hoping to finally beat Gordon to it. They were both always late, and therefore competed to see who could be the less late. The sky outside the tram was dark, and Barney settled into his chair, closing his eyes. His tram ride was a long one, and he could definitely afford a nap before arrival. He sat back comfortably, and slowly drifted into sleep.

Barney Calhoun awoke. It took him a second to realize where he was, and another to clock that the sun was shining. He must have been asleep for at least an hour. The Black Mesa Announcement System had begun to drone on in its monotonous robotic tones about the weather, upcoming events and safety procedures. Barney looked out the windows and realized that he only had five minutes of his tram ride left, and would soon be at work. It didn't surprise him that no one had gotten on while he was asleep; as there were so many trams that everyone normally took their own. A helicopter flew overhead, drowning the BMAS's voice for a minute, and the tram began to descend into a tunnel. The BMAS continued speaking, notifying Barney of the time: 8:42am. As the tram went lower into the dark, pink-rock tunnels Barney nervously wondered how late he was. If the time was 8:42, then that was only roughly twelve minutes, maybe fifteen by the time he got there. Not a long time, and definitely the fault of the tram. An hour and forty-five minute journey from the staff dormitories to Sector C is definitely a fault in the system. Too bad he wasn't awake to witness it. The tram finally exited the dark tunnels and emerged into a half metallic area with metal platforms and long windows looking into test facilities. Scientists and guards milled about on the platforms, waiting for their day to officially start, marked by most by the first sip of their coffee. Barney's tram arrived at a circular metal hatch in the wall, which opened after a quick pause and allowed the tram to zip through into the next tunnel on its journey.

The tram rounded a corner and passed by the staff cafeteria. Scientists sat around at tables eating and drinking a variety of items, from freshly created pizza (by real Italians born in Mexico!) to burgers to sandwiches. The tram continued through the facility, and came to a stop at a platform where a scientist was crossing a bridge to the other side. Barney began nervously tapping against the chair in front of him. _Hurry up! _Finally, the scientist got to the other side and tram jolted into life again, moving swiftly through the tunnels. Scientists began moving into their laboratories, setting up equipment and jotting down notes needed for the coming day. Barney's tram turned a corner and came to a stop at a platform holding a guard with an extremely annoying Canadian accent and a bushy moustache, "Hey Calhoun. Let me just swipe you down." Barney thought he looked more like a police officer from The Simpsons than a security guard. Barney passed into the final stretch of tunnel on his way to work. He was now passing by the Sector C Living Quarters, for scientists working in the Anomalous Materials department. There were walls lined with vending machines and rooms up at the top for the elite scientists, such as the Administrator. A man in a white lab coat with brown hair and a small goatee and glasses emerged from a hallway, bought something from the vending machine, and walked towards the empty tram behind Barney's, entering it. It was Gordon Freeman. "Hey Gordon!" Barney yelled at the tram, but the BMAS would be too loud for Gordon to hear, adding onto the factor that the tram was already far behind him, stopping for the doors to close and the mechanisms to reprogram themselves to the destination on his security pass. This reminded Barney, and he pulled out his security pass, his tram nearing the door. The text on it told the reader of Barney's education, his position and his priorities, yet not his age. Barney shook his head and kept the pass in his hand, waiting to arrive at the door. The BMAS let him know of his arrival, and he left the tram through the automatically opening electronic door.

Barney stepped onto the stone platform, walked up to the metal door and swiped his pass on the sensor. Nothing happened. He tried again. There was a beep, but the door stayed locked. Barney pounded his fist on the door. "Hey! What the hell? I'm already late and frickin' door doesn't even work." He nearly fell onto the track in shock when a voice responded. "Yeah, sorry Calhoun, the door isn't responding to your pass." Barney bashed on the door a couple times, before turning around to find the source of a noise from behind him. Gordon Freeman's tram had caught up to him, and Gordon stood in there laughing at his expense. "Yeah, yeah, really funny, Gordon." Barney flipped him the finger, and Gordon replied with "You still owe me that beer!" Barney didn't have time to think of a reply before Gordon's tram rounded the corner. Barney settled back to banging on the security door, "Hurry up in there! Jesus Christ, the tram's screwing up and now this?" The guard replied, "Yeah, there's been problems with the facility all day, I think it's probably got something to do with the experiment they're doing in the Anomalous Materials Test Chamber." Barney thought for a second. Gordon was in the test chamber that day. Hopefully nothing bad happened. "What, is it the equipment or…?" Barney's voice faltered as the door beeped and whirred, "I've got it." The door slid open to reveal a guard behind it with a wrench. "Better hurry up, Calhoun." Barney nodded and ran through into the lobby.


	2. Insecurity

CHAPTER TWO: INSECURITY

Barney followed the green paint on the wall all the way down the stairs to the lobby. A fat guard sat in a chair, tapping his chubby fingers on the computer keyboard. As Barney walked past he looked at his feet, not making eye contact. A scientist stood, complaining to a guy at the IT Helpdesk. The IT guy looked like he wanted to shoot himself. Barney felt the same. After milling about listening to their conversation he got bored, and headed for his locker. Every locker in the room was the same dark blue color, with the surnames of the owner (here mostly guards) in blocky yellow letters. Barney headed to his locker (tagged with CALHOUN) and opened it. Inside the locker were his helmet and bulletproof vest, plus some photos of Lauren. Since the photos had been taken she had grown her hair out more and Barney only kept them in his locker because he kept forgetting to take them back to the Staff Quarters at the end of the day. He pulled his helmet and vest off the coat hangers and put them on, shut his locker and walked out of the room.

As he walked back into the lobby, the guard at the front desk motioned for him, "Nice of you to show up, Calhoun." Barney was about to quip a response when the guard laughed and put his hands up, "I'm just joking, I know, problems with the access system. It's happening all over the facility. Hey, a couple of scientists are stuck in an elevator over in Sector G, it's not working. I don't think that they know we don't work in IT. Anyway, go over there and try to kick-start it with a gun or something, I don't know. Anything that works." Barney nodded and walked down the hall towards the elevator, pressing the down button. _Sector G? Maybe he would see Lauren there. _The elevator took him into the armory, where a young guard sat at a desk reading an outdated edition of Playboy. After about five minutes, he looked up and noticed Barney. Startled, he quickly reached under the desk and pulled out a Glock. "Hey, Barney." Barney quickly took the gun and holstered it, before smiling awkwardly at the guard and walking away quickly.

As he was leaving, the guard called after him, "Hey, I know you aren't scheduled in the range for a couple days, but barely anyone's in there so if you wanna squeeze in a few shots I'll let it slide." Barney nodded and walked into the doors to range, surreptitiously stealing clips of ammo from the guards in the range. He didn't want to ask the creepy guard at the desk for ammo, and this was the best way to get it. A guard in the last stall sat scoffing a donut, a box of Krispy Kremes at his feet. Barney spun on his heels, fighting the urge to ask for one, and left the armory through the elevator. He arrived back at the lobby floor and sprinted past the guard and up the stairs to the doors marked H-E PARTICLE LABS.

"Hey Calhoun. Got your gun? Vest? Looks like you're all set, I'll let you through now." The guard at the desk next to the doors pressed a few buttons on the computer console and the doors easily slid open. He walked through the corridors to the Sector G tram station and sat down on the couch next to an elderly scientist out of uniform reading the newspaper. The scientist looked up, "Are you waiting for the tram to Sector G?" Barney nodded, "Yeah, some guys can't get an elevator to work." The scientist chuckled, "You're better off walking it, none of the trams are working." Barney stood up, sighed and walked out to the platform. On his right was a red maintenance ladder and he climbed down it into the lower level of the platforms.

He opened the first door he saw and jogged down a few flights of stairs, before coming to the generator room for that sector. DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE proclaimed signs all around him, and he didn't want to dispute their theory. He pushed a barrel away from the exit, and was greeted by a pitch-black hallway. He turned on his flashlight and slowly walked through the tunnel. He stubbed his toe on a barrel ("Oh shit!") and dropped his flashlight, ("Shit!") but managed to exit the hallway, as lights emerged before him.

Barney walked into a room full of pipes, with various computer panels on the walls with flashing lights. He climbed a service ladder up to a metal platform and walked through a door onto a platform with a button that activated a bridge over a pit of water mixed with toxic waste of some sort. Barney pressed the button. It clicked, beeped in a deep tone, and nothing happened. Barney tried again, and stood back from the button as a tram passed by. Its' occupant was a strange tall man with dark black hair, a blue suit and a briefcase. Barney always thought he had a strangely pale complexion whenever he saw the man around the facility, but put it down to long working hours and stress. The tram passed through the tunnel, the man eerily staring at him, and Barney pressed the button once more.

The bridge collapsed down and Barney crossed over it onto the other side. Barney walked through a door and jogged up some staircases, before exiting through another door onto yet another tram platform, except this one was emblazoned with SECTOR G MAIN ACCESS LIFT and orange paint moving a strip to his right down a hallway. Barney followed it; waiting for the moment he lifted his pass up and cut the scientists' head off with it. Wait, um…no, for the moment he lifted his pass up and swiped it on the elevator's sensor. Jesus Christ, Barney was thinking darkly today.

Two scientists stood in an elevator, one of them tapping his foot impatiently. The minute Barney arrived he dived into a rant, "Well it's about time. Why don't you people get places quicker? The Administrator doesn't pay for you to piss around and play dollies." Barney got into the elevator, "And he does for you?" The scientist spluttered in indignation. Barney pressed the down button, "There. Magic. That was really difficult, sir. Ooh, it must really have required you to call one of us guards down so we could 'piss around and play dollies', and then complete the task of _pressing a goddamn button_." The scientist finally found his words, "You'll regret that." Barney smiled at the scientist, "No, I won't." The other scientist doubled over laughing, and the first one shot him an angry look, "You just got _owned_." He said between bursts of laughter, and this made Barney start laughing too. "Oh my god, I'm stuck in a facility full of idiotic apes." The first scientist said.

Suddenly, warning klaxons and alarms started to whirr and beep, and the elevator ground to a halt. The first scientist scoffed, making him seem like the biggest wanker Barney knew, "Oh look at this. I bet you it's those Anomalous Materials assholes, yes this is something of their doing I'd wager, always pushing their equipment to the limit, never just exercising common sense or-" Suddenly, the lights in the elevator shaft cut out except for an eerie blue glow. The panel on the wall smashed an a spike of electricity shot out and the first scientist fell to the ground, dead, blood seeping through his shirt. "Holy SHIT!" Barney yelled. Alarm klaxons went off louder than ever. Strange creatures appeared outside, attacking guards and scientists. Windows exploded, and a train flew through a guard, pinning his body to wall and juddering the elevator. It began to free-fall. Barney wildly looked around for an exit before there was a loud bang, and his vision went black.

* * *

So yeah, that was the second chapter. In this, I guess I gave you more of a taste of how this'll be, slightly more dark, delving into Barney's thoughts and a small variant on the actual events of the games. Because this is a boring chapter, in which nothing really exciting happens until the end, I attempted a comedy-themed chapter instead of the majority of Sci-Fi ones to come, so if you enjoyed it, then tell me because it will set the tone for the coming chapters with all the doctors and Rosenberg. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, please favourite and REVIEW!


	3. Duty Calls

CHAPTER THREE: DUTY CALLS

Barney Calhoun's eyes flickered open. Alarms beeped and lights flashed around him, disorienting him even further than he already was. The majority of his vision was taken up by the elevator's metal floor, and he attempted to look up and see what was in front of him. A strange creature stood with its back to him, seemingly _eating_ a guard. Barney attempted to move backwards, but he couldn't, so he stayed put and waited for the creature to disappear.

Barney Calhoun's eyes flickered open once more. He looked around wildly. The strange creature was gone, and something had moved off his back to allow him to pass. He stood up, examined his gun and surveyed the wreckage in front of him. The bodies of the two scientists were gone, probably eaten by the same creature that had been eating the guard. The guard's body, however, was still there. Barney walked forward and picked up a crowbar off the floor. It was heavy in his hands, but it would do.

He began to walk forward down the hallway, between the cardboard boxes and metal shelves. He examined the guard's body for ammunition, found none, and continued on his way down the hall. Turning a corner, he saw two of the strange creatures. As he fumbled for his gun they began to make strange noises, like a gun loading up to fire in a Sci-Fi movie. Barney grabbed his gun, and the creature let out a pulse that sent him back into a box. Before the other could do the same, he grabbed his gun and shot the two Pulsers.

He walked down a staircase and attempted to open the door; _locked_. He walked into another room and found the power generator, which was powering the lights, but also powering the lock on the door. Barney thought for a minute before glancing at his flashlight, pulling out the crowbar and smashing the panel on the wall. The lights flickered and went out, Barney pulled out his flashlight, went down the stairs, unlocked the door and walked into the next room.

This hallway was still lighted, albeit with fluorescent lights that painted everything a sickly turquoise. He walked into a completely flooded room with dirty water seeping through every crack, tables and chairs bobbing in the river. Suddenly, something jumped from his right and attempted to attach it to his face. "HOLY SHITSTICKS!" He hit it with the crowbar and shot it. It was a Facehugger, from the movie Alien, or just about. There was no doubt it _was _alien, though.

Another Facehugger thing jumped at him and he shot it with his gun, before muttering, "Friggin' immigrants." and laughing at his own joke. He jumped onto a table, crawled across and jumped to the other side, narrowly missing the water, which he now noticed, had turned green and toxic. As he attempted to open the door on the other side, another Facehugger appeared, which he promptly dispatched with his crowbar.

The room inside the door was only a storage closet, but he climbed the maintenance ladder anyway, (narrowly missing a Facehugger attack) and found himself walking on the air conditioning vents. A breeze fell on the back of his neck, and he found himself shivering as he crawled forward. A scientist lay with a gunshot wound in his side on the vents, leaning back against a wall.

"Barney! How the hell did you get through the locked door?" Barney began to answer but the scientist held up a hand, "Never mind, it-it doesn't really matter. Look, if you're aiming to get to the surface, you'll only manage that through the _canals_. If you get up there, don't tell anyone I'm down here. I think they're trying to cover this up and kill us all. Now go, quickly, get the hell to those canals!" Barney pulled out his pistol for protection and looked around. A gate that seemed to be the only way out was blocked.

Fortunately, it was next to a group of explosive barrels. Barney shot one, and there was a massive explosion. He averted his eyes, and after a while, looked back to see a twisted bunch of metal lying on the ground in a simmering heap. Barney jumped down from the vents, narrowly missing the toxic water but hurting his foot. He walked into the other room hopping and muttering, "Shit, shit, shit, ow that hurts."

On the next platform, he found an elevator normally used to move crates from one side to the other. He tentatively tested his foot, and then tested his foot on the elevator. It seemed to be stable. He pressed the button on the panel embedded into the wall, and the elevator jolted into life, swinging dangerously on its way to the other side.

Barney held on for dear life, looking down every now and then and cursing himself for doing so. Once the elevator came to a halt, Barney was glad the ride was over and jumped off quickly before it began its journey back. Two Pulsers jumped out from behind a wall and Barney shot them before they could start charging their pulse. As he turned to go through a doorway, a strange brownish-pink creature appeared in a flash of green light. The green light zoomed past him and smashed into the wall.

It had a small round head with a big red eye in the middle, with two hands on either side of it's body, and a hand coming out of its' stomach to create the lightning. Barney swung around, and shot it before it could make the green lightning again. The lightning slammed into him as the bullet slammed into the creature. He flew backwards, clutching his heart, which was beating at an abnormally fast rate. "I'll call you sons of bitches Shockers." He said, and shot it again. It fell to the ground dead, and Barney got his wits and his breath back before standing up and going through the door.

As he entered the door, another Shocker appeared behind him. He shut the door quickly and walked through the hallway, coming to two buttons, one marked NORTH TUNNEL ACCESS, and the other marked SOUTH TUNNEL ACCESS. The North one was sparking, so Barney pressed the South one. He could hear the other door opening outside, and dreaded his encounter with the Shocker that was out there. He slowly opened the door, ran out and hit it with his crowbar. This did nothing but hurt the Shocker, and, as it was creating a ball of green lightning, Barney quickly shot it with his pistol.

The South Tunnel Doors had begun to close now, and Barney slid under them, narrowly missing the chance to become squashed. He walked through the maze of wooden crates, his gun at the ready, waiting for Shockers or Pulsers to jump out and attack him. Just as he expected, after only going a few metres, two Pulsers jumped out and ran towards him. Barney shot them before they could start charging themselves, and continued on.

Through a half-open blast door, a third Pulser waited for him, eating a guard's body. Barney whipped out his gun and shot it, before looting the guard's helmet, discarding his own, and loading a clip of pistol ammo into his gun. He was grateful that he thought of stealing the ammo earlier, because he definitely needed it now. Two crane-operated lifts hung in balance on the ceiling, and Barney walked behind the Crane Control Unit at the back of the room. He brought the first one down just enough so that he could jump onto it from the Crane Control Unit's console, then jump onto a huge wooden crate, and then manage to get onto the second lift and climb a ladder up onto a platform.

He walked through a hallway into a slightly collapsed room with two blast doors, and suddenly, in a flash of green light, two Shockers appeared. Barney whipped out his gun, shot them both and ran towards a hatch through the door on the right. As he climbed down the maintenance ladder, he heard more Shockers appearing and thanked God that he had done that quickly. The ladder ended in a room full of pipes with running water flowing through them. Through a doorway, and down a small stone bridge there was a metal platform overseeing the dirty sewage water coursing through the facility.

He went to his right and found a ladder hanging in midair from a platform. He jumped to it, and caught onto the last rung before pulling himself up, narrowly avoiding a trip in the toxic-sewage-waste-water-stuff below him. There was a jet of white-hot smoke flying out of the side of a pipe. He found a valve near him and turned it, but the jet didn't shut off.

He climbed a ladder down to the lower platform, turned a valve and heard it switch off. Through a tunnel he found the dead body of an elderly scientist, and a shotgun loaded with shells. He walked back through the tunnel, climbed the ladder and passed through the, now turned off, jet of smoke. Past the pipes and panels there was a room full of computers and screens. In the corner there was a window overlooking the sewage process, and a button. Barney pressed the button, and things outside came to life, helping his further journey no doubt.

He found a first aid kit and applied it to his ankle, before charging the HEV system wired into his vest and helmet. He left the area, jumping off the floating ladder backwards, and went left this time on the platform. He climbed a ladder up to a platform and followed a network of pipes back to a room with barrels bobbing in the water. He swam through the drain and rose the water levels, letting him climb onto the platform. "Shit, I'm soaked." He muttered to himself. Suddenly, something grabbed him around his neck and attempted to pull him towards the roof. Barney looked up and shot a strange red thing that was trying to, apparently, _eat _him. A barrage of internal organs fell down as Barney shot the thing, and he had a strange feeling that he wasn't the first victim.

He looked around the room and saw tons of other Chompers around, resolving to get the hell out of there quickly. He looted some ammo off of a guard, and suddenly three Shockers appeared. He shot them all with two blasts each from the shotgun, and found this worked pretty well. The platform seemed to be cut off in the middle. Barney climbed over the side of the platform onto the pipes and followed them around the corner onto another platform. Opposite him, people who had Facehuggers on their heads were attacking a guard.

Their movements were slow and sluggish, like zombies, and they even kept moaning. Barney watched the zombies attack the guard, before falling off of him. Barney thought the guard had won, until he fell forward into the blackness, screaming. The zombies got up off of the ground and spotted Barney. He ran into a room nearby, grabbed some shotgun shells and a new vest, and continued onto the other platform…where the zombies were. He dispatched them quickly with his shotgun, their bodies falling off the sides.

Suddenly, three zombies came from behind him. He whipped out his pistol and shot at them quickly, killing one, but two still coming at them. Panicking, he grabbed the crowbar and whacked the Facehuggers on top, killing the control center. The zombies fell to the ground. He continued through to a room full of pipes. He walked through and found a dog-like thing with tentacles on its face shooting balls of acid at him. He shot the green Squidog, and continued through. Suddenly, he was ambushed by two more Squidogs, and ran up a ramp into the next room.

There was an elevator in front of him. He hurriedly pushed the up button, but nothing happened. Suddenly, he spotted the electricity box across the room. He sprinted to it, pulled the lever and activated the power. Suddenly, a group of Shockers appeared. Barney grabbed his shotgun and ran across the chamber, dodgy underwater and behind pipes to hide from them. He got to the elevator and pressed the up button. It started moving up, but very slowly.

A Shocker accidentally shot it with green lightning, and it sped up the elevator shaft at lightning speed, powered by the blast of the thing that was trying to make it stop moving. He arrived in a small room full of pipes, with a huge crate elevator on the ground. Two Shockers were waiting for him, and he quickly pumped them full of shotgun shells.

An explosive barrel lay on the ground in the corner of the platform. Barney thought for a minute, and then pushed it into the water below. It flowed into a pair of huge crushers, working together to smash everything coming at them, including Barney if he went that way. The barrel exploded and the cogs were reduced to brown logs, moving about, blackened with scorch marks. Barney jumped into the canal, and rode the current all the way through.

He climbed up a ladder, and saw two US Army men throwing bodies of scientists and guards into the water and complaining about it. Barney quickly ran into the next room. _What the hell was going on? _Maybe the Government had orchestrated a cover-up of some sort to keep the aliens contained? If this was the case, then he _KNEW_ it! He had been waiting for the Government to start covering things at the facility up, and this was the time. This was an accident waiting to happen, anyway. Never mind, he would write a book about it later, right now he needed to get out of the place, and he could start doing that by walking into the next hallway.

* * *

So yeah, Chapter Three COMPLETE! This one was a long one, and I thought about cutting it down but decided against it. I put in quite a bit of Barney's thoughts this time, kind of delved into his mind etc. because he has next to no human interaction in this apart from the dying scientist. I put in a hint at the conspiracy nut thing which I'll expand on in future chapters, especially with the scientists. Anyway, that's all for now. So, READ, FAVOURITE AND REVIEW!


	4. Captive Freight

CHAPTER FOUR: CAPTIVE FREIGHT

Barney turned the corner to see ladder in the middle of a circular room. He looked up, found out it led to the surface and eagerly jumped on, climbing up to the light at the top. Once at the surface, he could see a U.S Military Truck. "Hey!" he yelled, walking towards it. "There's these, these weird things down there-" Barney didn't have a chance to finish before a gun-turret started beeping and bullets sprayed everywhere.

Barney dived for cover behind a wall and ran towards a blast door, swiping his pass over the panel and running through into the tunnel. From what he had seen so far, it looked like the military had come to kill _them _too. Maybe that's what the scientist had meant when he said that "they" were trying to kill him. Barney rounded a corner and saw a car with its bumper lights flickering on and off, around the front of the car he saw two dead bodies in the car, the windshield sprayed with bullets.

Disheartened slightly by his new evidence of the militaries' newfound task, Barney walked around the corner to see the blast doors closing, and a military taskforce standing in front of them. Suddenly, he was peppered with shots of all kinds, and jumped behind the wall as the blast doors slammed shut. It was confirmed. The military had come to kill them, as well as the aliens.

Barney smashed the lock off of a door near him and climbed down a ladder through a hatch marked STEAM TUNNEL ACCESS. Suddenly, the ladder smashed under his weight and he fell into the stone hallway below. It took him a minute to regain his senses and stand up, coming face to face with another Facehugger. He quickly pulled out his pistol and filled it full of bullets, killing it.

Another Facehugger jumped at him from a long dark tunnel, and he dispatched it quickly with a crowbar, before tentatively taking his first step into the tunnel. Barney turned on his flashlight and walked slowly down the tunnel, ready to draw his gun at any time. He ended up in a room with strange red lights and pipes lining the wall. At the end were a round door and a bright red valve on the wall next to it. Barney stepped up the small stairs, turned the valve and opened the doors.

He ran down the staircase that greeted him, wondering why he was going down instead of up, and around the corner. His cockiness became his enemy when a Facehugger launched itself at him from around the corner. "Shit!" he yelled, pulling his gun and shooting it in midair. "Holy crap…" he muttered, "I just can't get any sort of break around here."

Around the corner were two burst pipes spitting boiling hot jets of smoke, and a Facehugger ready to ambush him, which he shot in midair. Barney slid under the alternating jets, trying hard not to singe the front of his face. He pulled himself out and examined himself for injuries, before turning to the hallway and continuing on his way.

As he walked through the hallway, he noticed the walls were becoming more and more cracked and destroyed, with chunks of stone completely missing, baring bright red pipes covered in rust to the open air. Suddenly, he slipped on a puddle and fell face-first into a boiler room full of water. He quickly opened the doors at the other side of the room, resulting in a surge of water behind him, and the wave spat him out onto dry ground.

Turning a corner, he was ambushed by a Squidog. Its' acid hit him square in the face and he staggered back, yelling in pain. As he knelt down and started washing his face in the water, he turned, only to be head-butted into the water once more by the Squidog. He equipped his shotgun underwater, and came up quickly, shooting the Squidog with the shotgun until he heard its dying moan and saw the body slump to the floor.

Turning a corner, he was greeted by a second Squidog, which he shot almost immediately, then turned around the corner into a tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, two Facehuggers waited for him in an elevator, jumping at him and knocking him into a group of toxic waste barrels. Barney quickly grabbed his pistol and shot them before they could get any closer, holstered his gun and boarded the elevator.

Once on the upper floor, a pair of Facehuggers, which he quickly shot, greeted Barney with open arms. He turned the corner, not expecting any threats, when suddenly three Shockers appeared, blasting green lightning directly at him.

He quickly drew his shotgun, shooting an explosive barrel behind the Shocker directly in front of him. He jumped back as green blasts came from the pair of Shockers around the corner. After reloading his shotgun and centering himself, he jumped out from behind the wall, killing both Shockers with a double blast and running into the next hallway.

Suddenly, a Facehugger jumped at him at the same time as three more Shockers appeared. Barney shot the Facehugger with a pistol, grabbed his shotgun, shot the first Shocker and…he was out of shotgun shells. The two Shockers sent blasts of green lightning flying towards him.

One of them got him and he was sent flying back into the wall. As they advanced, Barney fumbled for the powerful revolver he had picked up at the car full of dead people. He sent a bullet heading at both Shockers, and sent them flying back, dead. He came to another room full of crates, and was ambushed by a large group of Facehuggers. He shot the first two with his pistol before he was out of ammunition.

Barney grabbed his crowbar and attacked the remaining Facehuggers with the sharp end, sending them flying, spurting green blood. He put his crowbar back in his belt, sighed, and looked around the room.

He found a first aid kit on the wall behind a huge crate, and used that to treat the burn wound in his chest he had gotten from the Shockers' lightning. Turning the corner, he found a wire ripped out of the wall, sending blue sparks in all directions. Barney jumped to the side from the wire and managed not to be electrocuted. He stood, checked that he wasn't hurt, and turned to see the next hallway completely pitch black. His flashlight alerted him to the presence of tons of Facehuggers, waiting for him, and he began to sprint through the hallway, waving his crowbar like a madman.

At the end of the tunnel, he saw two Shockers appear. He fumbled for a gun with ammo, and found his weapons all completely empty. He quickly leaped for a crate on the ground marked AMMUNITION + SUPPLIES and smashed it with his crowbar as a spurt of green lightning flew over his head. He loaded his shotgun with shells, turned to the pair of Shockers and shot the both with double barrel blasts, wiping his forehead in relief.

Barney saw that the Shockers had blasted a vent pipe on the roof, breaking it in half with the first half hanging down just low enough that he could pull himself up into it. He crawled through the dark vent, flashlight on, crowbar in hand. Suddenly, as he rounded a corner, a Facehugger jumped up and attacked him. Panicked, Barney pulled out his gun and fired. The Facehugger fell back and his ears rung loudly, so loud they felt like they would burst. Barney crawled as quickly as he could to escape the ringing, his elbows and knees sore from moving as quick as he was.

Suddenly, just when he thought he couldn't take anymore, he dropped out of a vent into a small generator room. He could hear military shooting up the staircase, so he pulled out his pistol and cautiously began climbing the stairs, step by step, the tension almost physically painful.

As he rounded the corner he saw to military officers talking, obviously not taking their job seriously. Barney aimed very steadily, and sent a barrage of bullets into one of the soldiers' heads. He fell back, and the second officer pulled out a machine gun. Fortunately, Barney was too quick for him, and before he knew it, he was dead and Barney had a brand new machine gun.

Inside a nearby office, an elderly scientist lay against a wall splattered in blood, nursing to his injuries and muttering to himself. When Barney entered he looked up, suddenly. Barney helped him to his feet and put him in an office chair, before applying some bandages he found in the office. "I appreciate your help," the scientist began, "but there's no use. Those bastards did their damage already. If you're heading for the Freight Yards in hope of escape then forget about it, there's no way you'll make it through all of those troops." He coughed, blood coming out in a small trickle down his chin, "The military are rounding up everyone and everything they can find, and killing them or bringing them up here for…" he paused "questioning."

He launched into another coughing fit, talking again once it subsided, "A colleague and I, Dr. Rosenberg, were on our way to one of the old prototype labs when they found us…" He coughed again, his voice wheezing when he spoke, "Listen to me. Rosenberg is still alive, as far as I know. If you find him, you may have a chance to get out of this hellhole alive. Oh, and I'm Harold, by the way. Harold-" Suddenly, he launched into a final coughing fit, before his head lolled forward and he stopped breathing. Barney looked down at him for a moment, paying his respects, before leaving the room.

As Barney left the office, a door swung open, a soldier behind it ready to pepper Barney with bullets. Barney was quicker though, and shot the soldier with a double blast from the shotgun, killing him instantaneously. Barney entered the stairway and heard soldiers conversing through radios at the top of the stairs. Quickly, he ran up the stairs, shot a bullet onto the second floor, heard it ricochet upwards and confuse the soldiers, and barged into the first door he saw on the first floor.

The sunlight was especially bright after being underground for hours, and Barney nearly didn't see the squadron of military officers standing around the camouflage jeep, which he quickly killed with his machine gun. As he looted the bodies of ammo clips, he heard more soldiers coming and quickly ran to his left, climbed onto a dumpster and threw himself through an open window.

He landed on the cold stone floor right in front of two military officers having a chat. He pulled out his pistol and shot them both in the back of the head, before moving their bodies out of the way and running down the hall. He came to a stop at a door that led into a blood-spattered office with revolver bullets and a revolver on the desk. Suddenly, the voices of soldiers became louder, and he burst through a nearby door with his machine gun to find a warehouse full of train carriages, patrolled by a couple of military officers. He activated the small rocket launcher on the machine gun and launched one at them.

The soldiers fell back, all dead. Barney looked around, and then went back up the stairs. After sufficiently examining the hangar-type room, he walked into another room, this time with no lights on, and a bloody handprint next to the light-switch. He flicked the switch, and walked further into the room, gun at the ready.

He could now see it was an office, with desks and shelves overturned, and at the back of the room the dead bodies of the scientists lined in a row against the wall. Barney looked away, sickened at the sight. _Those military bastards will pay_, he thought, as he left the room and walked back into the train carriage hangar.

Suddenly, he became aware of a muffled voice and something banging against the wall of a train carriage. As he got closer, he realized it was a scientist trying to get out! He pulled out his crowbar and smashed the lock on the carriage, allowing the doors to swing open. As they did, he saw a scientist sat against the wall at the back of the carriage, surprised at his sudden savior. Near him, Barney noticed, was another scientist who seemed to be dead.

"Rescued at last! Thank god you came!" Barney nodded, and waved his hand at the scientist slumped against the wall, "Is he…alive?" he asked. The scientist shrugged, "I'm not sure, he was here already when _they_ locked me in." Barney nodded, "Are you Dr. Rosenberg?" The scientist shook his head, "Sorry, no. I did see him, though, he was on his way to one of the old labs, through the freight yards." Barney nodded, "Okay, thanks."

As he turned to leave, he heard noises from another carriage, and opened it hastily, only to be greeted by a pack of Shockers. He quickly shot them in a continuous burst with his machine gun, then walked over the door marked STORAGE and entered. A group of military soldiers stood there, guns at the ready. They were quick, but Barney was quicker. Five seconds later, and they all lay in a pool of blood. Barney looted the ammunition, and then left the room.

He found himself out in the sunshine again, in a small, walled-off area full of train carriages and wooden crates. _This must be the freight yards_, he thought. Suddenly, a group of military officers ran towards him. One of them managed to get a shot into his shoulder before his instincts took control, his machine gun was out and he was shooting madly at people. He jumped behind a crate to reload, then ran out of his cover and filled the next few with bullets.

As he sat behind a second crate, reloading, he came to the realization that he had turned from just a normal guy to a mindless killing machine in just about a day. As he sat there, thinking about his morals, a grenade landed in his lap. "WHAT THE FUCK?" he screamed, and chucked the grenade back at the soldiers, shooting it in midair so it killed as many people as possible.

The soldiers seemed to all have died, so Barney peeked around the edge of the crate, anxious to be done with fighting. The freight yard seemed to be abandoned, so Barney walked over to the only open tunnel, which exited right behind a military jeep. Barney jumped inside, looking for supplies. Suddenly, he saw a glint of metal, and realized that he had found a rocket launcher! He loaded in a rocket, pulled out his crowbar, cut through the roof of the car, and shot the rocket through the hole, which hit perfectly on the gun of a nearby tank. The tank exploded, killing the people around it, but also alerting the soldiers nearby. Barney loaded his shotgun and waited patiently for someone to check inside the car.


	5. Rosenberg

CHAPTER FIVE: ROSENBERG

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Okay, so Barney is a bit sadistic in this chapter.

Deal with it.

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The first soldier to peek into the car was unlucky. He fell back, dead, with a gaping shotgun wound in his face. Nevertheless, this did alert his comrades. By the time they had turned around, however, Barney was gone and inside the facility once more. A blue sign hung on the wall to his left, prohibiting littering. It went very well with the NO SMOKING sign to his right.

Barney ran through the hall, gun in hand, ready for another large group of soldiers to jump out and attack him again. It ended at a dark green door, leading into a large stone tunnel with half-circle doors at each side, made for a train. Barney walked out, and a loud beeping alerted him to the gun turret currently aiming at his back. He dropped to the ground, slid to the turret, and kicked it over before it could shoot him.

As the turret went crazy on the floor, spraying bullets in all directions and beeping madly, Barney continued onwards through the tunnel to the other end. A large train carriage sat in front of the doors, carrying four canisters of what looked like helium, or another type of chemical. He stood back, and shot the tips off of the canisters. Just as he had predicted, they flew forward into the wooden door, breaking a large hole in it.

Barney climbed up onto the train carriage, before jumping gracefully through the hole in the wood and landing on the train-track, mildly injured. A military officer raced towards him from behind a stack of wooden crates, hoping to get the kill before any of his comrades. Barney shot him down with his machine gun, and the man fell into the dirt, dead.

A second soldier attempted to attack him, and Barney was not as nice with this man, throwing a grenade at his feet and waiting for the explosion and the thump of the body landing on top of a train carriage.

He got to his feet, expecting more attackers, but none came. Suddenly, a soldier came sprinting out from behind a room jutting out from the wall, his machine gun blazing before Barney saw him. Unfortunately, he was a lot younger than the others and his shooting was off-target by quite a bit. Barney took pity on the young man as he fell to the ground, gasping for air and nervously glancing at his large bullet wound.

"Don't get up until I'm gone." Barney told the man sternly, "Or I'll actually kill you." The young soldier nodded, and gasped for more air. Barney walked towards the room that the soldier had come from, and found it was a control booth for the turntable that connected the train tracks. He spun it around to connect with the tracks that held a rather large red cargo train. Barney walked to the front of the train, and reversed it through the turntable, out of its' tunnel and nearer to the large group of wooden crates. It smashed through a stack of crates, and came to rest in a surprisingly well fitting area cut out from the stone of the raised platform holding lots of cargo crates.

Barney opened the back of the train, and saw a man huddled at the back of the carriage, his back against the wall. "Hello…are you Dr. Rosenberg?" he asked tentatively. The man nodded and looked up, "Yes, I'm Dr. Rosenberg, I'm not very proud to admit it, though, seeing as I'm partially responsible for all this…and, uh, who are you?" Rosenberg was balding, with tufts of dark grey hair and a grey goatee on his face. He wore glasses over his dark green eyes, and a bloodstained lab coat.

"Calhoun, sir. Barney Calhoun." Rosenberg nodded, "Well, it's nice to meet you. But…how did you know my name?" Barney tried to explain as best he could, "Well, you see, sir…" Rosenberg held up his hands, "You don't need to call me sir." Barney nodded, "Okay, Dr. Rosenberg. Anyway, so I met a scientist in an office, he was badly injured. He told me to find you and help you escape. And… then he died. His name was…Harold, I think." Rosenberg's shoulders sagged briefly in sadness, "Oh, poor Harold."

Suddenly, the carriage door slammed shut. Barney looked around startled, as a military radio crackled into life outside, "Yeah, we got the bastard." Barney cursed his luck. From now on, he would give no one the benefit of the doubt for the rest of his life. Rosenberg continued, slightly quickened, "See, our plan was to use one of the prototype labs, and get out of here using the very same teleportation technology that brought about this whole affair. The technology _I _helped develop." Rosenberg looked around, "Unfortunately, if we don't get out soon we may never have a chance at all. Use that trapdoor on the roof to get out. I'll give you a boost."

Dr. Rosenberg knelt down, his hands at level with his head underneath the trapdoor on the roof. "Go on. And get your gun out, you don't want to attack empty-handed." Barney quickly grabbed his machine gun, before climbing onto Rosenberg's hands and rolling over the side of the roof onto a wooden crate. The young soldier he had kept alive earlier was in a conversation with an older soldier on the other side of the train.

"I can't believe that idiot actually let me live, even though I tried to kill him." It does give you faith in the heart of Americans, though." The soldiers chuckled together. Barney aimed his gun at the soldier next to the younger one and let loose a blast of ammunition that killed the man before he realized he was being shot at. The young soldier began to sprint for the exit, but was brought down by Barney shooting a bullet into his foot. As the soldier looked up at the man standing over his body, he was more scared than he'd ever been in his life."

"Don't worry," said Barney, "I'm not gonna kill you. I'm just going to leave an example for your friends." And with that, Barney picked the man up, held his hand against the wall and shot a revolver bullet through it, pinning it to the wall. "The U.S is a country of God," said Barney, chuckling, and an adamant atheist, "…and isn't this what happened to Jesus?"

He walked back to let Rosenberg out of the train, ignoring the cries of pain from the young soldier. Rosenberg hopped out, looked over his shoulder and raised his eyebrows, "That noise is quite irritating, actually." He remarked. Barney nodded, "Yeah good point." He walked back to the sniveling 19-year-old. "Bad news…" he said, mockingly shaking his head, and shot the soldier with a shotgun.

As Barney and Rosenberg walked through the hallway, Rosenberg suddenly spoke, "Why didn't you just kill him in the first place?" Barney shrugged, "When you've had a rough day, it's good to take your anger out on something, or someone…" Rosenberg scoffed, "By torturing them?" Barney nodded, "Yeah. Someone should put that on a T-Shirt!"

The door at the end of the hall came out into a staircase. Military officers chattered at the top of the stairs, and Barney through a grenade to save him the trouble of wasting ammo. The soldiers cried out, and bodies flew around wildly. "Jeez…" Barney said. "The janitor will have trouble cleaning this up." Barney and Rosenberg scaled up the stairs, being careful to avoid any body parts.

The open door at the top of the stairs led into a hallway with a checkered black and white pattern on the floor. A soldier stood behind a desk, shooting through the glass to kill Barney when he saw him, and taking a shotgun shell to the chest as he did so. The lights at the end of the hall flickered on and off, and the glass in the nearby vending machines was completely smashed.

Barney opened a door into another staircase, coming face to face with two soldiers, who both came face to face with his revolver. He descended the stairs, quickly followed by Dr. Rosenberg. "Are you always this…violent, Calhoun?" he asked, tentatively. Barney laughed and shook his head, "I've had to adapt, Dr. Rosenberg. Nearly everything here wants to kill you. You have to be on your toes, ready for everything," he paused, "…and also you need a rather large arsenal of guns."

Barney and Rosenberg exited into the basement, so far just a long hallway with some crates lying around in some places. Barney smashed the large amounts of dust and wood blocking a hole in the wall, only to find it was an elevator, and pushed Rosenberg in hurriedly. "Come on, Doctor, let's pick up the pace." Barney pushed a random button on the keypad, and the elevator began to descend. "You know," Rosenberg began, "It would be a better idea to use the Lambda Reactor to get out, but those people are bent on fighting the aliens. They've got all hope set on someone called Freeman…not sure who he is, but he sounds like he can fight from what I've heard."

"Yeah, that's Gordon." Barney muttered. "What was that?" asked Rosenberg. "Nothing." Barney told him. Suddenly, the doors dinged and opened into another dark corridor. The hall was littered with chunks of metal, stone and wood, fallen air vents and patches of blood and other things that Barney couldn't name. "Looks like some parts of the facility aren't doing as well as the others!" mused Rosenberg, "Let's hurry, Calhoun, and maybe we can meet up with Simmons and Harold's assistant, Walter Bennet." Barney hurried along the hall besides the doctor.

They came to a door with a handprint-lock embedded in the wall. Rosenberg placed his left hand down and swiped his card. The door beeped, and slid open, admitting entrance into the lab for Barney and Rosenberg. "We're lucky the security systems are still active." Rosenberg muttered as he and Barney entered.

A scientist knelt on the floor next to a large machine, feeding in parameters for whatever he was trying to do. When Barney and Rosenberg walked in, he jumped in surprise. "Dr. Rosenberg!" he exclaimed, "I'm so happy you're here. We were just about to start the experiment." Rosenberg nodded, "Thank you for waiting, Walter. This is Barney Calhoun, he's the reason I was able to make it here." Walter shook Barney's hand. He was balding, like Dr. Rosenberg, but had even less hair, and his was white as ice. He wore smaller, rounded glasses that reflected into anyone's eyes that looked too closely, and was quite short. "Good to meet you, Calhoun." He gestured to a doorway, "Now go through there, Simmons is getting everything ready while I charge the power cells."

Rosenberg punched in a code at the door, and it slid open quickly. "Come on, Calhoun." He said, and ran to a console with a large amount of buttons and switches on it. Barney looked up at the thing in the center of the room. It was a large yellow machine, hanging down from the ceiling and getting smaller and smaller until it reached a four-point containment field, made to hold the portal.

As Rosenberg examined screens and wires, he talked to Barney quickly, "Unfortunately, this older equipment cannot target Earth destinations in its' current state…you see, Mr. Calhoun, teleportation is not as easy as going from Point A to Point B. There is a point in between those two, a border world, sort of a point AB. And that is where the aliens came from. Half of our equipment is in the border world, and unfortunately it's not active." Rosenberg activated a few systems and some screens whirred into life. "We need someone to go to the border world and activate the equipment. That someone is you."

"Simmons, Walter and I need to stay here to operate the equipment, so that only leaves us with this option." Barney sighed and nodded, "I understand. Open the portal and I'll jump on through." Rosenberg pushed a button, "That's the spirit, Calhoun." A man appeared at a control panel a few levels up. He had dark skin, and blackish-grey hair. "Simmons!" Rosenberg called up, "It's ready." Suddenly, the strange machine began to whir, and strings of light began bouncing around inside, connecting themselves between the corners of the containment field and the large thing hanging down from the ceiling.

"Get ready, Mr. Calhoun. Once the portal is open, it will become unstable very quickly. Try to make it back as fast as you can, don't waste any time. Oh, and it's quite hostile out there. Be careful." Rosenberg stood back, "NOW, SIMMONS!" He yelled. Suddenly, lights flashed and a ball of green light lay in the middle of the room, "Go now, Mr. Calhoun!" exclaimed Rosenberg, "Go now!" Barney took a deep breath, ran forward and his vision flashed green, then black, and the green again.

Barney felt as if he was falling through a never-ending hole, and as if he couldn't breathe. Suddenly, there was a thud, and he felt as if the hole had finally ended, and that he had, for the first time in a million years, landed on solid ground.

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You know what to do.

Fav and review.

I like to rhyme.

12:30 is the time.


	6. Focal Point

I'm sorry this took so long, but the power and the Internet went off at my house due to storms, so we had to fix that. Then, this chapter was **_EXTREMELY _**boring to write, as the majority is just climbing through little holes and fighting headcrabs. Anyway, sorry it took so long (and that it's so short), I'll start on Power Struggle now, and hopefully (fingers crossed) have it up either in a few days or so.

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CHAPTER SIX: FOCAL POINT

Barney Calhoun stopped falling. The strange, spongy ground underneath his feet felt strange and foreign, but he didn't care. And then, suddenly, he did. All at once, it seemed, his brain took in the sights around him. The greenish sky, the large stalks reaching upwards, the strange whip-like plants, with their tips moving in the breeze.

He had been out of his depth when he was shooting up government soldiers. Now he was past that. He was on an _alien planet_! Not only that, but an alien planet in a different _DIMENSION! _While his mind caught up to the facts and figures he needed to absorb, his eyes caught hold of a pack of Pulsers.

Ah.

That was the worst thing. This was the home world of all of the creatures he had encountered back at Black Mesa. They were everywhere in there, so imagine how many he would find here! Barney shuddered at the thought of any more aliens. He definitely was going to need psychiatric help.

As Barney moved slowly backwards, the Pulsers began to shiver and awaken. Barney grabbed his shotgun, startled, and started to climb up a clump of large boulders, onto a horseshoe-shaped bridge between two cave openings. He decided to do things as fast as he could, and get back to Rosenberg alive. Hopefully.

He pulled himself onto the large platform. Inside the nearest cave was a body… or rather, half of one. An HEV suit was crushed under some boulders, the person inside long dead. A canister of ammo, suit batteries and painkillers lay next to him. Barney picked it up and opened it, loading his guns and charging his half HEV, half Kevlar vest.

When Barney was done, he began to walk in a large circle over to the opening. Once there, he was met with the lovely sight of two Pulsers, which were promptly shot with his newly loaded revolver. He walked through into a small room with one of the whip-like plants next to a hole in the wall.

He started to inspect the hole, before the Whipper whacked him forward into it with its' tip, leaving him in pain and crammed into a small space. _What the hell? _As he crawled, his back stung like he had _actually _been whipped. He needed to watch out for those. Suddenly, a Facehugger leaped at him.

"SHIT!" he screamed, then instantly regretted it as the noise bounced around the small space. He crawled forward quickly, his ears ringing and Facehuggers launching themselves at him from behind. Suddenly, he was greeted with light, and fell out of the hole onto a floating platform, nearly falling over the edge.

Large diamond-shaped rocks floated around together in the air. The only possible explanation was that this planet or dimension or whatever had different gravity to Earth. Barney jumped into the air, and found that he floated slowly down. He stood back, ready to jump, and leaped onto one of the rocks.

He landed with a thud, and quickly scrambled onto the platform, his legs onto solid ground again. The surface moved up and down, and he tried to balance on it, his legs shaking. The next rock was level with him and he jumped.

And he made it.

_Just_.

The platform moved up and down underneath his feet, quicker than the other by a small but existing margin. Barney leapt for the next platform, higher still and moving at yet again a different pace. Suddenly, bursts of green lightning temporarily blinded him. When the light faded, there was a Shocker on the platform he had just been on, and a Shocker on the platform above him. They were both rubbing their hands together, muttering strange alien phrases.

Barney grabbed his shotgun and the first Shocker fell into the abyss. He turned to shoot the one on the platform above, and its body too went the same way. Barney managed to get himself up onto the final rocky diamond, before jumping as far as he could into the opening ahead.

Through the small tunnel of rock, he found a pack of Pulsers waiting for him, and they began to vibrate. He swiftly dealt with them using his crowbar, before running into the tunnel ahead.

What waited for him was a strange arrangement of floating platforms. One lay between the ledge he stood on and a huge one in the middle of the trio of rocky entrances surrounding it. A single platform, too, lay between the other entrances and the middle.

Barney jumped onto the platform directly ahead, before making his way onto the center one. A pool of light blue liquid lay in front of him. Barney carefully dipped one foot into the substance. Nothing happened. He put his other foot in. Suddenly, the liquid began to run up his legs and through his body, healing injuries and sealing wounds. The feeling was amazing, but slightly painful.

Suddenly, a noise, like a plane, came from overhead. Barney looked up and saw a large red and orange stingray fly into focus. Suddenly, the Ray shot down a large bolt of, not green electricity, but _bright gold_. A part of the platform collapsed and fell through the sky. Two Shockers appeared, getting ready to fire, as the Ray turned around and began its second attack.

Barney ran up and jumped over the hole made by the Ray, before shooting wildly with his machine gun at the Shockers. The Ray began to fire quicker bursts now, accidently killing the Shockers, but to no avail. Barney was already inside the cliff-face. But was that really the best option?

Crawling through another hole in the wall, Barney suddenly fell through the opening and into a large lake filled with dirty brown water. He tried to get out, but the current was too strong and he was pulled forwards. The rapids thrashed him around, and rocks cut into the parts not covered by his vest. He finally managed to get out just as he neared the waterfall, relieved and out of breath.

He walked along the ledge of stone going along the walls of the large cavern he found himself in, finally making it to a tunnel of some sort. He walked through, crowbar at the ready. Suddenly, two Facehuggers leapt for him. He swung the bar around and pinned them both to the wall before letting it go. _Sneaky little shits. _

Light flooded into the tunnel around the corner, and Barney found himself in a sort of clearing. A large yellow crystal sat in an observation machine. Upon looking around Barney could see a power generator and a control panel. This had to be the power source for the teleporter! He climbed down the rocks and turned on the generator.

The glass casing on the control panel lifted, and Barney saw two dials, which moved arrows around a type of compass. There was a white area around most of the circle, but a green segment lay somewhere on each. Barney twisted the dials until the arrows were in the green, and the console beeped, two green lights flashing on.

The yellow crystal began to give off green lightning. Two Shockers appeared, one to his left and one to his right. Barney leapt behind a rock as the console exploded from the force of two Shocker blasts at once. He sprinted forward, Shockers appearing everywhere. Suddenly, a large alien with blue armour appeared on top of a rock. What seemed to be alien bees zoomed towards him as he ran into a small cavern full of equipment.

As he backed up, a Shocker appeared. It rubbed its' hands together, getting ready to shoot its' lightning at him, when the roof above it collapsed. The rocks fell in a rough staircase-ish pattern onto the helpless Shocker. It collapsed under the huge weight, dead. The large soldier alien came towards Barney through the opening, followed by the Shockers, getting ready to zap him.

Barney jumped for the rock at the top of the stack, pulling himself up just as the Shockers down below shot their green lightning. The roof collapsed, and Barney just managed to get onto the platform that the rocks led up to. He came face to face with two Shockers. They rubbed their hands together in anticipation, but Barney was quicker.

He whipped his gun from his holster and shot them both with one bullet each. They collapsed. Suddenly, Rosenberg's voice echoed into the cave. _Rosenberg? _"Calhoun! The portal is open. Get to it quickly, it can't be held open much longer!" Barney ran out of the cave, and found himself in the same place he had started on the large horseshoe bridge.

A big ball of green and gold light pulsed above a large chasm just a few metres away from him. _This is it, _Barney thought, _If I don't make this, I die. _Suddenly, one of the large soldier creatures appeared to his left. The bees buzzed at him. He jumped. Suddenly, his vision flashed green, and then black, and then green again, and he felt, once again, as if he was falling through a never-ending hole.

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Review it and wait (with bated breath) for Chapter Seven: Power Struggle.


	7. Power Struggle

How did I do that? I have no idea how I just finished this chapter that quickly…although it may explain why it's so short. Hm…anyway, enjoy!

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CHAPTER SEVEN: POWER STRUGGLE

Barney Calhoun stopped falling again.

It hurt more this time.

He flew out of the teleporter and smacked his head right against the metal walls. Rosenberg rushed to him. "Calhoun! You did it! We had begun to worry when you didn't come back for some time. We're getting a very strong signal, but unfortunately I have some bad news. The power reserves were just enough to open the portal for your trip to the border world. We need someone to go down to the lower levels and recharge the power cells."

Rosenberg put up his hands in defence, "Yes, yes, I know, you've done enough, but a few of our colleagues went down there a while ago and we haven't heard from them since! Neither me nor the rest of the scientists can go down, we need to keep an eye on the equipment."

Barney just nodded. "Lead me to the elevator." He said wearily, before turning on the balls of his feet and strolling out of the room. Rosenberg hastily rushed after. They walked into the power cell delivery room, where Walter knelt at the machine, adjusting dials and buttons.

At the back of the room was a large metal service elevator, rusted with age. "Just in there." Said Rosenberg, pointing. As Barney walked into the elevator and pressed the button, he heard Walter Bennet call out, "Good luck, Calhoun!"

The elevator ground to a halt on the lower floor. As Barney stepped out, he suddenly became aware of a rather large Squidog in the middle of the hall, feeding off of a security guard. He loaded his shotgun, aimed, and hit the creature with a double-barreled blast. It moaned weakly before collapsing to the cold metal floor.

He stood over the guard's body for a minute, before removing the battery from its' vest, and inserting it into his own. A small platform elevator stood at the end of the hallway, which he rode up onto another platform. Suddenly, he became aware of voices. Through the metal fence he could see a scientist and a security guard standing together in the other end of the power cell delivery station.

Suddenly, a Shocker appeared behind the scientist. "It's okay, sir, I can take it!" said the guard, killing the Shocker as he said so. "Those…_things _are everywhere!" exclaimed the scientist, as another Shocker appeared behind him. "Look out!" called the guard, but the scientist had been electrocuted, and lay on the ground. As the guard tried to pull out his pistol, the Shocker pushed him back into the fence and ran off.

Barney stood back from the fence, frowning. Why hadn't that affected him? If he had seen that yesterday he surely would have felt…something? So why didn't he? It was scary how he had needed to adapt, and had accordingly this quickly. His mind quickly flashed back to the scared face of the nineteen-year old soldier and he winced. Some things were better forgotten.

As he walked back through the hallway, sparks began flying from the doorway. Loud voices came from behind the door. _Military_. Barney stationed himself in the small room jutting off the hallway that contained the elevator, and waited. Suddenly, the sparking noise stopped. He rolled a grenade out into the hall, and heard the door be kicked down.

Suddenly, there was a small explosion, and two bodies collapsed to the ground, dead. Barney walked through the empty opening and found boxes of ammunition and grenades littering the bloodstained hallway. He loaded his machine gun, and pocketed the extra grenades. Suddenly, he heard radios beeping on and off.

Turning the corner cautiously, Barney came face to face with a soldier. After a delayed reaction for both of them, Barney regained his senses first, filling the soldier with bullets. A soldier in a red beret turned the corner. He shot at Barney from the left, hoping to catch him off guard.

It worked.

Barney fell back against the metal wall with a bullet in his shoulder. As the soldier reloaded his gun, Barney felt for something in his pocket. "Burn in hell, asshole." He croaked, and threw a grenade into the room the soldier was in, diving out of the way. He heard an explosion, quite a few yells of pain, and then silence.

He turned the corner and found a first-aid kit on the wall. _Thank god for morphine. _Barney injected himself and felt bliss, and the pain slowly slipping away. With a newfound strength, Barney grabbed his machine gun, and ran out onto a bridge between two entrances. Through the other entrance, he found two knocked over vending machines, and a staircase upwards.

At the top of the staircase was a hall, and at the end of the hall was a detonator. It was one of those pump-ones, kind of like a tire-inflator, with a wire coming out of the bottom. He pushed the T-bar down, and watched the spark on the wire lead to a large metal door.

There was something extremely satisfying about making things blow up, Barney decided as he walked down the hall. He came to a stop at a red ladder, which he climbed. A few easily dispatched Facehuggers waited for him at the entrance to the Pump Control room. He walked in and turned the valves on the wall, draining the pool of water through the window of toxic water and leaving it dry, full of Coolant Barrels.

Through another doorway he found an elevator quite similar to the one he had come down in from Rosenberg's lab, although smaller, and went down one floor. Here waited a couple of Facehuggers, who each received a pistol bullet for their troubles. Inside the drained pool, Barney saw a group of barrels clumped together and had an idea.

He arranged the barrels like stepping stones, before getting back into the elevator and going up to the other floor. He turned the valves once again, raising the water level. He walked into the room with the water in it, and slowly jumped from barrel to barrel. Just as he was about to reach the other side, a Soldier Alien and two Shockers appeared.

Barney jumped from the barrel onto the metal platform jutting out over the water and loaded his shotgun, shooting both the Shockers. The Soldier still remained alive. He looked around, before scrambling through a doorway and out onto a fenced-off platform covered in crates.

As Barney climbed the crates, he saw two military soldiers fighting against two Alien Soldiers. The Aliens had their bees, but the Military had guns. Guns with grenade launchers. The Aliens fell, dead, onto their back. Suddenly, Barney realized that because the Aliens were now dead, the Military would see and target _him_. He quickly jumped over a red fence onto a platform from one of the crates, and walked into the adjoining hall.

At the end of the hall was a door marked TURBINE CONTROL. Barney walked in, shot the feasting Squidog, and turned his attention to the console underneath a window looking out upon the room with the pool in it. Only now did he realize that large yellow turbines hung down from the roof into the water. He pressed the button on the console, and the turbines whirred slowly into life, picking up speed and sending sparks of purple and gold everywhere.

Now that the turbines were powering the electricity, he would have no problem charging the power cell. He climbed over the crates, jumped back over the barrels, and walked back onto the large black bridge. Barney managed to climb up the side of the wall and take hold of a small metal platform coming out from the wall that he had come out of after injecting himself with morphine.

Past the platform lay a blood-spattered hallway, which in turn led into the power cell charging room. The guard who had been attacked by the Shocker sat against the metal fence dividing the charger from the delivery system, his hand on the injury in his chest. "Dr. Rosenberg sent you, right?" the guard croaked.

Barney nodded, "Yeah." The guard twitched slightly, "Okay. The power cell is already in the charger, just start it, and then put it in the delivery system," he licked his lips, "Here, let me get out of the way." He managed to move to the side, before coughing and slumping onto the ground.

Barney looked away, and focused on charging the power cell. Once that was done, he pushed through the door in the metal fence, and carefully inserted the power cell into the charger. He heard a ding, and left through a metal door at the back of the room.

The door led into the place where he had watched the guard be mauled by the Shocker. He took the small elevator down, and turned to go into the elevator. Three military officers greeted him and his machine gun was out as quick as possible. They fell back against the wall, dead. Barney pressed the button on the keypad, and felt the elevator move upwards beneath his feet, knowing that he was so close to escaping, but still not there yet.

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So yeah, it's almost over. Don't be sad, though, because I have a very special idea for what comes after this…and it will be very exciting indeed. Anyway, please wait for the final chapter, fav and review etc.


	8. A Leap of Faith

Well, here we are; at the end of our journey. I really hope you enjoy this chapter, I've changed some things up to make it longer. Also, don't forget my new project will be very exciting indeed!

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CHAPTER EIGHT: A LEAP OF FAITH

The elevator juddered to a halt. Rosenberg stood waiting with Walter Bennet. "Well done, Calhoun. We've already begun preparing the device with the power cell you sent up." Barney stepped out of the elevator as Rosenberg began speaking again. "However, the process _is _complex, so I'll need you to help me in the main room." Rosenberg began to briskly walk to the teleporter room, and Barney jogged slowly after him.

Walter Bennet and Simmons stood at the power cell, examining it and fiddling with buttons on the machine. Once Barney had turned the corner into the teleporter room, Rosenberg was already at the control panel pressing buttons.

He looked up. "Alright," he said, "I'll stay down here and direct the procedure. I need you to climb up to the control room and activate the main power." Barney nodded, "Alright then." He walked to the red ladder nearby and climbed it, before turning the corner into a small room.

There was a fenced off area through which Barney could see Rosenberg at the controls. A green panel with a large red button on it lay just beneath. A yellow lever was on the wall to his right, labeled MAIN POWER. Barney pulled it.

The teleporter crackled into life. Beams of gold and purple light began shooting out from the different areas on the teleporter, slowly but steadily charging itself up. Suddenly, there was an explosion out on the platform with the ladder. Barney ran out to see what the problem was, as the many machines began beeping.

"Calhoun!" called Rosenberg, "Quickly, turn that valve and release the pressure! Before the system overheats and we all die!" Barney slowly turned the large red, rusted valve on the wall of the platform. A screen sat above the valve, and inside a red needle slowly moved towards a green area, contrasting from the left side; the red area.

Suddenly, the valve stopped turning. The beeping died down, and Barney stepped back, breathing heavily. "Okay, pressure stabilized." Rosenberg called up. "Now get back into the control room and ready yourself to initialize the teleport!" Barney only nodded, and jogged back into the control room.

Simmons turned the corner into the room. Rosenberg looked up at Barney, "Press the red button!" Barney obliged, and the gold and purple light became a pulsating ball of green. "Goodbye, Simmons!" yelled Rosenberg, as the dark-skinned scientist disappeared through the ball of light.

Suddenly, the ball vanished and the strings of gold and purple light reappeared, crackling like lightning. "Very good, Calhoun. Let's ready the teleporter for Walter." Barney responded with a short, "Okay, then."

As Rosenberg fiddled with knobs and switches, Barney became aware of a loud banging noise on the locked metal door located just opposite the control room on the upper platform. He heard deep voices behind it. _Military. _"Dr. Rosenberg?" he called, "Can you hurry this up?" Even from there, he could still hear Rosenberg tut-tutting, "Patience, Calhoun. This is a delicate procedure."

Barney looked back at the door, the banging getting louder, making dents in the metal. Suddenly, Rosenberg straightened up from the control panel. "Calhoun, get ready!" Walter Bennet ran into the room with surprising speed for someone of his age. "Dr. Rosenberg!" he called, "Someone is coming up in the elevator! I locked the door to the lab but that won't stop them for long!"

Rosenberg nodded quickly, "Seems we'll have to hurry up, Mr. Calhoun." He said. "Initiate the teleport!" he called up. The streams of light turned, once again, into a light green ball. Walter Bennet ran forward and disappeared with the ball of light. Suddenly, Barney felt sparks landing on the ground behind him.

He turned around to see that someone was cutting through the metal door. Not just anyone. _The military. _Barney called down to Dr. Rosenberg. "Hurry up, doctor!" Rosenberg nodded fervently. "Yes, yes. I am quite aware of the gravity of our situation." He touched a few more buttons before standing back from the console. "Yes, there we go. Okay, Calhoun; activate the teleport!"

Barney once again pressed the red button. "Don't worry, Calhoun!" called Dr. Rosenberg. "The console is set to automatically activate the teleport once I'm gone. I will see you on the other side!" Rosenberg ran forward, and vanished in a flash of light.

Barney heard the door be kicked down, and grabbed his machine gun, hiding against the wall. Gruff voices spoke in hushed tones, "I swear I heard people in here." Another voice spoke up, "Don't worry, me too. Let's have a poke around."

The teleport began to activate. Gold and purple streams of light appeared. Suddenly, Barney heard someone banging on the other door. _Oh god, no. _He decided to turn around and face the soldiers. Three … two … one.

Barney jumped out from behind the wall, his finger firmly on the trigger of his gun. The pair of soldiers in the doorway fell back yelling in pain. The leader of the trio, the man in the red beret, turned around at the noise. "What the…?" he muttered, before Barney rolled a grenade out onto the platform. He saw the body fly over the platform fence and onto the ground, dead.

Barney watched as the next strings of light appeared. He returned his attention to the door to the lab. The sounds of someone cutting it open had begun, sparks flying. He slowly climbed down from the platform and stationed himself near the door. "Bring it on, mother fuc-" The door was blown open, sending him flying backwards.

A large group of soldiers waited, armed to the teeth. They began firing. Barney jumped to the side, bullets in his leg. He quickly reloaded his gun, and took the first one he saw on. The bullets penetrated his armour in the softest parts, sending him screaming to the floor.

The second one of the group, a man in a gas mask, pulled a shotgun from his belt and loaded it, intending to hit Barney with a double-barrel blast. Barney slide tackled him, before whacking him over the head with the butt of his machine gun.

The third soldier ran towards him, a desert eagle in hand. Barney ducked down, before catching him off guard and head-butting him in the stomach. The soldier fell down, and Barney stomped on his hand, grabbing the desert eagle.

Behind him, the teleporter began to shoot long beams of light to either side. Suddenly, there was a green flash and two Shockers appeared. _Shit._ They shot long beams of light at the remaining soldiers, who ducked for cover. At least, the one in the red beret did. The other one flew back into the wall and sprawled, a large burn wound in his chest.

Barney held his finger down on the trigger as he ran towards the Shockers. The first one fell to the floor, but the second one raised his hand and punched Barney in the stomach. Barney fell to the ground, winded. Suddenly, the Shocker fell to the ground. He heard a blast from a shotgun, and turned to face Doctor Isaac Kleiner, shotgun in hand.

Barney stood up, slowly. "Doctor Kleiner?" he asked slowly. Isaac Kleiner had been Gordon Freeman's University tutor, before convincing Gordon to join Black Mesa and work with him in the Anomalous Materials department. He was in his late forties, with thinning brown hair and black glasses…and currently, a shotgun.

The body of the beret soldier lay on the floor, pooled in blood. Kleiner moved slowly into the room, "Yes, hello Barney." He turned around, "Come in, Eli." Eli Vance walked into the room. He was slightly younger than Doctor Kleiner, with dark skin, black hair and a greyish beard. He looked significantly more somber than usual, and carried a young girl, only about four or five, in his arms.

"How- what-?" asked Barney, at a loss for words. Kleiner shushed him, "It doesn't matter right now. What matters is that you get through that teleporter. Don't worry, we'll come after you." Barney nodded slowly. Eli Vance left the little girl with Kleiner, before climbing up to the control room and pressing the red button.

A green ball of light appeared, hovering in the air. "Hmm…" muttered Kleiner, "Whoever's been using this equipment has been doing a _much _less efficient calculation process." Suddenly, he looked up at Barney, "Go on, Barney. We'll see you up ahead." Eli looked down at him, his voice cracking slightly, "We'll see you there."

Barney looked forward, and ran towards the green ball, ready to be teleported. His vision flashed black and green, and he was once again falling through a never-ending hole.

Suddenly, he landed. But he wasn't in the Black Mesa Staff Car Park. He wasn't even in Black Mesa. The looming structures of the alien dimension surrounded him. _No…_ he thought, _God, no… _Before he could even have a look around, his vision flashed green once again.

Now, he was in a sort of…storage cupboard. He could see into the adjoining hallway through a small window. Suddenly, he heard two men's voices. They were deep and gruff, obviously military. They walked past the window, but they were dragging someone along the ground. Someone in a bright orange suit.

Gordon.

Barney looked on helpless, as the soldiers dragged the unconscious body through the hallway. "What are we gonna do with him now we've caught him?" one of them asked. "Topside for questioning." The other replied. The other one spoke again, in a more menacing voice, "Well, what if we never captured him at all, what if he just…disappeared?" The other soldier began to laugh, "Yeah…what if he just…I don't know, ended up in the trash compactor?" The soldiers chuckled together.

Barney tried to get out of the room to help Gordon, but suddenly, his vision flashed once more.

Dr. Rosenberg stood in front of him. Walter Bennet was attacking the metal gate of the car park with a crowbar. Simmons sat in the driver's seat, while Kleiner was helping Eli and his daughter into the car. "Well done, Mr. Calhoun!" said Rosenberg, beaming, "We were afraid you'd been caught in an infinite harmonic reflux! If you had, then you're lucky to be alive!"

Walter Bennet pried the gate open, before jumping in the back of the white SUV. "Anyway, that doesn't matter." He walked away from Barney and jumped into the passengers seat. Barney got into the very back seats, next to the Eli's daughter. "What's her name?" he asked. "Alyx." He replied, softly.

As Simmons pulled out of the gates, Dr. Rosenberg turned to face Barney. "We made it, Mr Calhoun! We made it!"

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Wow, it's actually finished. Oh, and please don't kill me for Kleiner and Eli. I just _had_ to.

Second of all, the first chapter of my new fanfic will be out in a few days. Here's a hint: It has to do with HL2.

That's all for now,

**_Agent C21_**


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